Sky Sports & Movies Subscription Prices Increase…Again

Sky Sports subscribers brace yourself, because what I am about to tell you is not the best of news. Your subscription to the nation’s favourite sports broadcasters dedicated sports channels is awaiting the imminent arrival of a £3 per month price hike. Sky Movies too, but the increase is a slightly more modest £2.50 increase.

This increase is happening just after Sky TV has made Sky Sports News an exclusive channel to their broadcasting network and having removed it from the other platforms such as Freeview.

They’ve also moved some of the premium sports content, such as the Soccer Saturday, their live football scores program with Jeff Stelling to Sky Sports News, therefore stopping non-Sky viewers from watching it on Sky Sports 1 on other platforms, something that has annoyed many sports fans without a Sky subscription. Perhaps non-Sky subscribers willll have to make do with reading the website or using the Sky Sports News iPhone / iPad app?

What Does That Amount To?

According to Sky, the increased charges will raise another £240m for Sky as customers around the country who are all forking out extra for the privilege of having Sky, providing they don’t all just close their subscription, that is. The figures are based on the 9.78 million subscribers who will be affected by the price increase and make up the nigh-on quarter of a billion pound cash influx Rupert Murdoch will no doubt be licking his lips at – especially if he wants to ‘invest’ in more Sky 3DTV, which launches for home viewers in October 2010.

However, the official press release takes a more light-hearted approach to analysing the extra cost, stating that the extra £240m could theoretically translate allow them to either buy Tottenham Hotspur Football Club for a mere £241m, or Mancester City for £166m (If the Sheikh allowed it, of course).

They also state they could buy Cristiano Ronaldo three times over, or Kaka four times over, or Robinho seven times over. They could buy the entire population of Manchester (400,000) season tickets to see their favourite team. It’s all just to put the figures into perspective for football fans, though, and they have no intention of actually doing any of the above. Wait… hear that sound? Yeah, that’s four hundred thousand mancunians weeping.

Are There Other Options?

To put it into a little bit more realistic perspective, and to compare it to rival offers, BT Vision customers can watch premier league games from 75p per game, based on the next three months of fixtures on BT Vision’s Sky Sports 1 and 2 and ESPN, which equates to £11.99 per month.

So I know that a lot of subscribers are becoming increasingly impatient with Sky’s pricing, simply saying it is just not worth it, especially with more online TV options developing such as the BBC iPlayer and the likes of SeeSaw TV. So could this be the final nudge that hundreds, if not thousands, of current Sky subscribers need to make the switch to other rival services from the likes of BT Vision or Virgin Media?

Will you leave Sky TV behind because of these increased prices? Or do you think that the added channels on Sky HD (nearly 50 now) are on the whole worth it to watch lots of TV channels in high definition goodness?